Clarissa Amelia Cornia was born October 13, 1857, in Bountiful, Davis, Utah, the first child of Peter and Ruth Clarissa Carter Cornia. She was given the name of Clarissa Amelia after her grandmother, Clarissa Amelia Foster Carter, who had died in Pittsfield, Pike County, Illinois, from privations and sickness suffered by the saints. To her parents were born eleven other children. Clarissa was always called Clara. She was short in stature, had brown wavy hair, very blue eyes and was cheerful and pleasant by nature. She was very industrious; she could find so much to do there never were enough hours in the day for her. She was a friend to everyone and always was loved and highly respected by all who knew her; her family though they were blessed with the best mother in the world.
When she was seven years old she left Bountiful with her parents who had been called to settle Kamas, Utah; and then from there in 1869 to West Point, Nevada to the "Dixie Mission". After being there two years, her parents were released and they returned to Bountiful. From there they went to Woodruff, arriving there in 1871.
When Clara was seventeen, she married Savannah W. Clarke Putnam. She and Savannah made the trip to Salt Lake with her parents. They stopped at Castle Rock the first night and Bountiful the fourth. They were married in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City on May 18, 1874.
Clara was active in the ward. She sant in the choir and taught in the different organizations. When her mother was president of the ward primary, Clara was her first counselor. She also held positions in the Relief Society.
The day before her twenty first birthday, Savannah married his second wife, Ane Marie Josephine Nielson. Clara was a witness to the marriage in the Endowment House.
The following children were born to Clara and Savannah: Clarence (stillborn), Laurence Artemas, Clara Ruth, Louise May, Savannah Ezra, Harriet, Peter Cornia, John Melvin, Ernest, Edgar and Delia.
As Clara's family grew older, there were no means of earning a livelihood and so she and some of the members of the family moved to Salt Lake. They were able to find employment and Clara was busy and happy maintaining a home for them. From then on she made her home most of the time in Salt Lake City. She would return to Woodruff in the summer to help on the ranch during the haying and threshing season.
She was faithful in attending her church meetings; never mission the afternoon meeting at the tabernacle, ward meeting at night or Relief Society on Tuesday.
She had a desire not to live to be a burden to anyone. It would seem the Lord granted his desire as two weeks before her 64th birthday, on Septembre 25, 1920, she passed away after a short illness. On September 28, 1920, she was buried in the Bountiful City Cemetery, Bountiful, Utah.
*Taken from the book "The First 100 Years in Woodruff"